The "Vademecum for Confessors" at Twenty-Five Years Old: Revisiting the Conditions for Lawful Cooperation in a Conjugal Act Deliberately Rendered Infecund by the Other Spouse in Light of the Delict of Solicitation

Abstract

The then-Pontifical Council for the Family's "Vademecum for confessors concerning some aspects of the morality of conjugal life" identifies three conditions that must be met for a spouse to participate licitly in the marital act when it is deliberately and voluntarily rendered infecund by the other spouse. When these conditions are met, the spouse cooperates, albeit lawfully, in the other spouse's objectively sinful behavior. The fact that the Vademecum places conditions on what constitutes lawful cooperation sets limits to a confessor's instruction in this matter. As such, the confessor, who "as a minister of the Church is to adhere faithfully to the doctrine of the Magisterium" (c. 978 §2), may not deliberately and erroneously advise a spouse to cooperate illicitly in the marital act that the other spouse intentionally renders infecund. What if the confessor's instruction exceeds the limits for lawful cooperation? Under specific conditions, a confessor's deliberate erroneous instruction regarding grave sins against the sixth commandment, including that which exceeds the limits for lawful cooperation, is an iteration of the very serious delict of solicitation.